


Gerald's Legacy, Maria's Rebirth

by Valentine20xx



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Maria as a Hedgehog
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:49:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21694915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valentine20xx/pseuds/Valentine20xx
Summary: Maria Robotnik's last days of life were hell. Taking medication that didn't seem to work, being forced to sit in clean rooms all the time...So, What happens when her grandfather effectively tells her that is going to stop, and offers her a miracle cure thatisworking...And what happens when Maria suddenly turns up alive?
Relationships: Maria Robotnik/Shadow the Hedgehog
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	1. 50 Years Ago

**Author's Note:**

> The most important thing for this story is that, in the original Sonic universe, Project Shadow was not only designed to create a bio-weapon, but to create a cure for NIDS, something which will be a driving force behind the change in this universe. I will state, right now, the true nature of how ABL works will not be revealed except through research done by the various characters within the story itself.
> 
> For several reasons, I haven't given the full story in this stage of the story, only hints of it. When more detail comes up in later chapters, I may well expand out these early chapters to fill in the obvious blanks.

For Maria Robotnik, her life revolved round listening to the cycling patterns of the air filtration system, practically used to the sterile, flat taste of the air after every micro-organism in it had been eliminated by the hugely expensive filters. She didn’t have any illusions about  _ why _ the filters filtered everything. If a single virus or other bacterial infection got into part of the station where she was, for all they knew, she could be dead within hours.

They were so paranoid, she carried round a repurposed candy dispenser that dispensed the medication she needed, ‘in a variety of flavours’ as her grandfather had put it, less than convincingly. They all had a nasty, oily taste to them, just a slightly different after-taste, that might, once, have suggested a flavouring was added. But whatever the medication was, it completely eliminated any enjoyment she could gain from them.

“If you were to leave the sterile area, you’d expose yourself to far too many variables...” Her grandfather had stated, “This is all for your own safety...”

The worst thing was that her weak consititution meant that any plans to improve the drab, literally sterile environment were shot down with annoyingly precise, and accurate reasoning. A garden was full of unpredictable elements, with pollen being a known allergen. She couldn’t paint her room, the things in paint were too numerous to mention. And pencils or crayons to draw with brought their own problems, due to what they were made of, so she had a computer and tablet instead.

The only thing he didn’t veto was her times with Shadow, which she was beginning to find was the highlight of her day. She couldn’t have flowers, she couldn’t paint her room, but her and Shadow got to have all the time in the world together. She looked at the picture she’d drawn, during a period of whimsy, which depicted Shadow cuddled up with a female hedgehog with yellow fur and quills

What she noticed more was the blue outfit, very similar to her own, telling her what she was really thinking. That hedgehog wouldn’t have problems with NIDS meaning she couldn’t have a bright, colourful room with proper sheets and a nice thick down comforter. She would be able to have the run of wherever she lived with him. She...

She would be able to give Shadow what he wanted, what he’d need, in the future. Not a girl who was suffering borderline hypochondria, due in part to her father’s rampant fear-mongering about her long-term health. Instead, he’d have a healthy, strong...

“Maria, can you report to my office?” Gerald asked, cutting off her thoughts, the edges of the walls lighting up, Maria following the route that lit up on the floor, leading her towards where her grandfather was, the route she was following both secure and safe. She ignored the signs leading to the aboretum and other places she’d been vetoed from going to.

Once she got there, she sat in the safety area, isolated from where her grandfather worked on who-knew-what. It both worked as a way to avoid her knowing government secrets, and a way to keep her from things that could harm her. Notably, a vent was sat beside him, smoke curling up from it. That was different.

“What do you want, grandfather?” She asked, for a slot to open in the space between her and her grandfather.

“Can you put your current dispenser in the slot?” He asked, for her to nod. She’d done this several dozen times when the tablets ran out. However, her dispenser was almost two-thirds full. He then opened the vent, dropping it in for a brief gout of flame to come up from it.

“It needed to be destroyed…” He stated, simply, unwrapping a new, practically identical one, which he loaded with multi-coloured brick-like tablets, much more like the candy he made the original, glossy black tablets out to be. She hadn’t liked them one bit. “I’m changing the formulation on your medicine. Take these after meals at minimum, otherwise…”

She accepted the new dispenser, looking puzzled, and taking one. She barely could tell these were medicine. She looked towards her grandfather as she started to take some more sheepishly, for him to finish with, ”There is no problem with you taking them excessively,”

“Why are you changing my medication?” She asked, confused by the comment. The original tablets were heavily regulated, while these…

She sheepishly noticed the dispenser was already to the same level as her old one, and he’d not even batted an eyelid. “The original formulation was...” Gerald began, then sighed, “Less than what I expected. I was getting annoyed with stifling you since it was not working anywhere near how I expected...”

She tuned him out as he began discussing the technical side of it, sliding out of the chair and heading back the way she came, not noticing him smile as another couple were dispensed...

The first thing she noticed when she got used to the new medication was that she didn’t get tired, and even was able to keep up with Shadow somewhat, which had been largely impossible before.

“You’re improving immensely!” Shadow declared, noticing her take a couple of tablets after her exercise routine, “So, those the new tablets?”

“Yes, they’re much easier to take...” Maria admitted, “You knew he’d changed the medication?”

“I have similar tablets in my food, that’s why. The professor started adding them, crushed up. Don’t mind though...” Shadow admitted, “They look different though...”

“That is because I was incubating part of Maria’s cure in you, which meant some parts of the medication have to be given to you as well, to avoid side effects…” Her grandfather stated, “How often do you take them, Maria?”

“I keep forgetting they aren’t candy, and just have some whenever I feel like something to snack on,” Maria admitted, “There’s no side effects though...”

Gerald smiled. He didn’t want to admit, for all intents and purposes, they were just literally off-the-shelf candy, in fact, the same as the dispenser normally used, the candy absorbing the actual medication. The Black Doom derived vaccine had required for him to press his own tablets, with some berry extracts added to the mixture to attempt to give them flavour, but even he could tell they had tasted vile. He’d broken those up in Shadow’s food, outright inert at that point, the small amount of the new ‘vaccine’ in Shadow’s food slowly killing the Black Doom pathogen.

In his lab, There were two containers, one with food supplies for Shadow, the other with candy for Maria, both of which had their own formula for dealing with anything left over of Project Shadow, and, in Maria’s case, to deal with her NIDS. Once the containers were empty, there would not need to be more made, and Maria would go onto outright candy, with no evidence that she was no longer being medicated. The secondary effects of Maria’s medication were also immediately apparent, and more than satisfactory.

“Shadow, I need you to go into the requisitions area with Maria. Pick some paints out, and some better bedding for her room…” Gerald declared, “Anything else you think you need, just make sure to sign for it...”

Maria visibly blinked, as she realised exactly what he’d said, then ran off with Shadow to get the things to make her room… a room.

A few weeks later, He was sat in a conference call with the President of the United States and Commander Tower of GUN. They wanted his head for Project Shadow, so this was his last chance to sell to them that they shouldn’t just direct a space-borne nuclear missile towards the colony. As a best case scenario.

“Mr. President, I do not think Project Shadow in it’s current form is viable,” He stated, “While there has been results, they unnerve me, and I cannot continue. I have another project, much safer and much less likely to cause a violent reaction to the level Project Shadow has...”

“To say Project Shadow isn’t viable is like saying water is wet, Doctor...” Commander Tower stated, “Just the leaked information about the… Biolizard… has GUN ready to terminate everyone on this station, even her… and now even  _ you _ are saying it’s not going any further?!”

“So, What’s this magic bullet, that will mean we hold off GUN for another month, and give you a vague chance to get what you want to save off the station...” The President asked.

“A two-part project, ABL, one part classified as Angel, the other Devil. I trust this project so much, the Angel prototype is designed specifically to be used on my grand-daughter,” Gerald stated, “The secondary prototype for Project Shadow will be moved over to the ABL system, as Devil, as soon as you give approval...”

The President looked over the preliminary data on ABL, and nodded. Unlike the clandestine nature of Project Shadow, ABL even in it’s prototype form had much more concrete data. Even Commander Tower, who barely understood it at the best of times, found this appreciably better on paper than what they wanted shut down.

It’s medical properties involved a formula that didn’t need any particular dilution medium and could be used with anything, the active component also dissolving easily with no side effects as part of normal biological activities. Even the projections looked incredibly good. A more generalised Angel would cure anything short of the common cold.

This took it right back into the medical field, Devil being the closest to a military focus it had, and didn’t use any of the vague biological agent that Gerald had mentioned in his reports about Project Shadow, but refused to bring up in any kind of detail. This was positively open in comparison…

Angel was a super-medication that could be introduced into a third world country’s natural food chain with little issue, and didn’t even have overdosing problems, since any excess dosage just was expelled in normal waste, while Devil was a physical enhancement serum that kept someone at their peak performance, passively improving that peak.

“Officially, continue Project Shadow as is. Unofficially, all research is to be moved over to ABL at the earliest opportunity,” Commander Tower stated, “The Guardian Units of The Nations is likely to still, ahem, shut you down with extreme prejudice just from the Biolizard incidents, but…”

“Try to use blanks when you shoot her, or at least avoid a lethal shot. Admittedly, ABL could potentially heal even one of those...” Gerald stated glibly. He already knew that some of his research had been leaked, just because of the sheer disaster the first prototype had been. This was his way of at least recovering something from it.

The approval from the President was merely a formality. Maria’s last tests came up clean. She didn’t have NIDS. What she  _ did _ have was classified to the highest levels. Even better, Shadow’s DNA was, for what he was, just as clean. His genetics were normal for a natural Mobian. None of Black Doom’s genetics polluted his genome. Whatever plans they had for Shadow would find nothing to use.

The reason for Maria’s ABL variant being called Angel was how he saw her using it, as an angel come down from Heaven to help the world. Shadow’s variant was called Devil as a near-constant reminder that he had once been a harbinger of doom, as a stealth agent of Black Doom, but now…

ABL’s advanced features relied on the power of the Chaos Emeralds, so he’d not give them up for anything. He looked at a pair of blue sneakers, the soles effectively frictionless, the same technology that had lead to the Chaos Drive embedded into them, and put them in a box to give Maria as a birthday present.

On the day itself, She didn’t know when she got them that they were intentionally frictionless, or the fact that her own running speed had become discreetly faster than human norms. All she knew was that she spent a whole day in the colony’s arboretum, with no complaints, for her birthday, which she assumed was the big present.

She wasn’t really noticing that she was actually moving almost as fast as Shadow’s original baseline speed, meaning the researchers couldn’t stop her poking and prodding at everything. He’d looked in on Maria’s room, borrowing her new sketchbook, smiling at how it was far from the sterile room it had been last time.

Even if GUN did kill him for what happened with Project Shadow, he was able to put into his private journal a simple message. “Maria’s movement and reaction speed well within optimal ranges. She doesn’t even notice that she is faster and stronger than anyone could possibly be. As far as she knows, it’s just that her NIDS is in recession. Before Project Shadow claims me, I know, I know… I have succeeded. I have achieved my greatest goal. My angel, you will make me proud. She’s so healthy, so happy… And she will use her gifts to bring us peace,”

When GUN’s attack happened, the ABL data was seized as they finished the job he was working on at the time, vast chunks of the research on Project Shadow destroyed even before they got there. The report as Shadow left the colony was that the Project Shadow research was irrecoverable. No-one even noticed Maria getting up from her gunshot wound, confused, both by the fact that the wound was missing, and that, despite Tower and Gerald’s hopes, it had been intended to be fatal.

An automated message sent her into a pod in a side room, her clothes discarded as she laid down to rest. The pod disappeared into the wall as a metal plate covered it, reading ‘Project ABL – Designation: ANGEL’, and various pieces of information about Maria, given in an almost clinical fashion. If she’d known why her new vaccine had no dosage requirements, she’d have realised why she was the exact opposite of what she’d been beforehand, and what her real future would hold...


	2. Planetfall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I said in the first chapter, The only damage to ARK in the new timeline was a rampaging mutated lizard. Gerald _knew_ Maria would live. However, that's not to say that the colony will **_survive_**

Decades passed, the aftermath of GUN’s sterilization of Space Colony ARK now just a set of lines in a heavily redacted report, several reams of seized research texts and a cold sleep capsule under heavy guard within one of GUN’s secure facilities, containing what was recorded as the final piece of Professor Robotnik’s research, only not destroyed so others could analyse it eventually.

When a different Robotnik however found the contents, his DNA caused a hidden sensor to send a tight beam message to Space Colony ARK itself, which caused the colony to immediately go into self-destruct.

Within the colony itself, alarms began blaring, as automated messages asked all staff to report to the escape pods, which would be automatically launched in 10 minutes. In an abandoned bedroom, similarly automated systems packed everything away, for them to join a metal capsule, inside which was the sleeping form of Maria, now in her late teens, both being loaded into a specially assigned pod, launching alongside the others.

When the pod landed, the capsule within the pod folded away, clothing forming on the sleeping girl as she woke up, collecting a backpack as it slid towards her, sliding it on, tapping a few buttons on the container that held items that couldn’t just go in the bag, for it to compact to an impossible size.

She headed for the nearest city, her clothes and backpack shimmering as the style shifted to closer resemble what she could see other teenagers wearing, right down to her gaining a pair of headphones that lead to an indeterminate location in her jacket. As black vans shot past her on the way to the crash site, absolutely none of them even recognised her.

The pod would be seized and looked over with a fine tooth comb, but several similar ones would be landing at the same time, and they’d eventually figure it was a safety measure that had been activated. They’d not find any proof anything had been _in_ any of the pods.

“In Station Square earlier this morning, GUN got into hot water with locals after they caused massive damage in the residential district when one of their automated capture rigs caused several million in damages pursuing a rogue hedgehog, who was also linked to a GUN helicopter ending up downed around the same time...” A news report stated, Maria halting as she studied the news report. As she looked at the blue streak, she sighed. It wasn’t hard to tell what was really going on.

“Someone reactivated Shadow...” Maria mused, “They must think someone’s restarted research into Project Shadow, and this blue hedgehog just got caught up in it all. Never mind that the research was destroyed, and any viable examples of the research went up when I left...”

She headed to a nearby internet cafe, getting out a slim object that, to the random observer, would seem to be a mobile phone, placing it on one of the computers before sitting down. Within a few minutes, she knew the blue streak belonged to Sonic The Hedgehog, a natural version of what Gerald had created using science. She wondered if the high tolerance to moving at breakneck speeds that both Sonic and Shadow had was a genetic trait of that particular sub-species of hedgehog.

Well, She was only capable of short bursts of high speed with a pair of Chaos Drives in her shoes, with her natural speed and endurance only being as good as it was due to...

“Maria, stop analysing the hedgehog. Just because half your family would...” She mused, checking for the keywords ‘Kintobor’, ‘Robotnik’, and then, on a whim, ‘Eggman’, an atrocious nickname one of her relatives had due to an ongoing weight problem, alongside Sonic’s name.

She got a hit in minutes, and sighed as she confirmed her suspicions. It wasn’t just the fact that Sonic’s main reason for being a rebellious, cocky pain in the ass for GUN was one of the half of her family that planned world domination as a casual hobby, it was even the exact one she’d singled out, and he was _still_ using that terrible moniker!

Spotting some kind of attack robot, she smiled. She approached it, before discreetly smashing open one of the panels in the bodywork, removing the Chaos Drive from inside. After that, she popped open a compartment in the back of her left shoe, sliding it in. A quick study of the hardware got the robot self-destructing. She did manage to figure out GUN built it.

She then observed the hedgehog shoot past, his velocity fast enough when his curled up body collided with them, that, in a fight between the hedgehog and the robots, it ended decisively in the hedgehog’s favour.

“That or the armour on the top was poorly made...” She mused, finding one that he’d missed and using a car to vault on top of it, not really thinking about how easy it was to do so. She’d got used to the fact she had better fitness than most people due to being weak for literally years.

Yep, the armour on the top of the robot was like tissue paper. Her foot went right through it, causing damage that earned her a second Chaos Drive, which slotted into the right shoe.

“Glad _some_ parts of Grandfather’s research got to GUN,” She mused, before she then ran towards one end of the street the hedgehog had gone down, blue tracery lines appearing in her wake as her shoes powered up.

“ _ **CHAOS DASH!**_ ” She snapped...

...and shot down the street not _much_ slower than the hedgehog...

Tails looked up as Sonic called him, grimacing at something as he finished his latest bit of reconnaissance. Well, more destroying GUN robots while he waited for Tails to break into the GUN mainframe.

“What’s wrong, Sonic?” The two-tailed fox asked.

“The pattern was off kilter just now, Tails...” Sonic grumbled, “Completely missed the jump to get one of the robots. One of them must have collided with a street sign or something...”

“Sonic, they’re not laid out in patterns for you to jump on...” Tails replied, pausing before adding, “Well, not all of them. GUN doesn’t lay them out like that. It’s just how the formations line up, and some weird quirk of Eggman’s. Anyway, About what you asked about, I cross-referenced Shadow and Ultimate Lifeform and got a hit on the GUN mainframe… Project Shadow. An immortality experiment that got mothballed...”

“If it got mothballed, why did I just encounter something based on it’s research?!” Sonic asked, “Seemed to think I was the fake hedgehog… Could use a Chaos Emerald, a single one, to bend space-time...”

“Don’t know, but the first viable prototype, codenamed the Biolizard, was declared to be berserk, and the head scientist, Gerald Robotnik… Stop sniggering, Sonic,” Tails stated, cutting off Sonic, “...He suspected it would cause feral behaviour in all subjects,”

“Sorry, but do all evil research projects have to involve part of Baldy McNosehair’s family tree?” Sonic asked. Tails checked something.

“Not _all_ of them, but most of the ones involving random megalomania...” Tails sighed, exasperated, before snapping, “Still, focus, Sonic...”

“Going back to Project Shadow, If that was the case, Tails, Care to explain why Shadow wasn’t just lucid, he was actually very intelligent. He was the whole reason I spent this morning tearing through Downtown showing that robotics research has some serious issues and costing GUN several million in damages,” Sonic half-quipped, “At least Eggman actually sometimes puts drills or spikes on the top of them. GUN just leaves a massive weak spot...”

“OK, Over the robotics, I think it’s since it’s hard to armour the areas with sensors in, since it disrupts them,” Tails mused, “Ahem, now I’m getting side-tracked. Over Shadow being lucid, I can’t explain that at all. I only can find what I can since there were comprehensive notes, and GUN seized all research documents,”

He then paused, breathing slowly. “And even with those, after the Biolizard went berserk, the notes dried up, and there were no reports filed with the government… GUN’s report on the subject was suspicion he’d gone dark due to something worse than the Biolizard, which was why they went full bore shutting him down. Considering what was in the research, I think it was since he used Non-Terrestrial Agents...”

“Less of the geek-speak please, Tails...” Sonic sighed.

“Gerald gave up on Project Shadow since it used alien technology,” Tails replied. Sonic nodded. That was never good.

“Right, so he mothballed it since his prototype was going berserk and likely Shadow is just _named_ Shadow due to his colouration...” Sonic offered, Tails nodding himself.

“All I have of post-Biolizard is a filed request concerning research on something else. Project Devil and Project Angel, the male and female component of something called A.B.L.” Tails mused, “That might be why Shadow was lucid. He was moved to Project Devil… The ‘harbinger of doom, the dark avenger’… That’s what it calls Project Devil. Project Angel is the ‘divine pacifist, the gentle voice of reason’...”

“Some would call that sexist...” Sonic mused, “But we have Shadow, who is very much destruction incarnate...”

“OK, Cross-referencing that… OK, Here’s some more. Whatever Project Angel created, they’d be a form of repentance, a counter to the habit of Robotniks to make weapons of war...” Tails mused, locating an image of a yellow-quilled hedgehog, with stylised angel wings, marked ‘Project ANGEL – A.B.L Prototype (Concept). Based on design by M. Robotnik,’ with a second image showing a blond haired girl, wearing a blue outfit, marked ‘Project ANGEL – A.B.L Prototype (Mk 1)’. transmitting both to Sonic.

“Cute. So, the Devil side was what he reworked into Shadow, knowing what would likely happen with Shadow, and the Angel side is much more designed to solve the problems that Shadow’s likely to cause… with versions planned for dealing with both races...” Sonic mused, “Anything on what happened to either design for Angel?”

“A.B.L was in progress when GUN seized the research. For all we know, Project Angel was never finished.” Tails offered, “Will look into who M. Robotnik is...”

Maria came to a stop, panting.

“OK, Yes, Chaos Dash proves that it’s likely their physical or genetic profile that allows them to tolerate it…” She mused, disappearing off the path she was on, coming out a few moments later as the hedgehog she’d effectively designed herself, the backpack now replaced by a sports bag that hung from one shoulder. Any other design would get ruined by her new quills. A minor thing that crossed her thoughts was that her body was much more aerodynamic, and she’d figure out the rest _later..._

Over the change itself, She didn’t understand the science behind this, but the lessons she got in the pod told her this was possible. The Chaos Drives were almost spent though, but there seemed to be a Mobian settlement nearby, which would hopefully accept a random wanderer.

‘ _Green Hill Zone. Free from Eggman’_ _s_ _Attacks since 199_ _6_ _!_ ’ The sign read, and she headed into the area. She’d go looking into Sonic and Shadow after finding somewhere to stay that provided warm food and a good bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last confirmed appearance of a version of Green Hill Zone, prior to Sonic Adventure, was in Sonic Blast in 1996.
> 
> And I highly doubt Eggman just happened to think of that name.

**Author's Note:**

> In this timeline, the attack on the Space Colony ARK went much less violently, since Gerald was expecting the attack. It was only the unaltered Biolizard that caused problems.


End file.
